Jonathan's Space Report
No. 522 2004 Mar 19, Somerville, MA
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- Minor planet 2004 FH, a 30-meter rock discovered on Mar 16, passed
about 42000 km above the South Atlantic around 27W 30S on Mar 18 at
2200 UTC. This is just beyond geostationary orbit, and the closest
known approach to Earth of an object of this size, excepting those
inferred from the discovery of large holes in the ground. (Fortunately,
although Chandra was at about the same altitude, it was over the Pacific
at the time - phew.)
- Rosetta, Europe's flagship science mission for the first half of this
decade, was launched from Kourou on Mar 2 at 0717 UTC. The probe will orbit a a
comet and deliver the Philae lander to its surface.
The launch vehicle, Ariane No. 518G (flight V158) was the first Ariane
5G+, with an improved EPS upper stage. The EPC core stage entered a 45 x
3849 km x 5.7 deg orbit 9 min after launch. It completed one orbit and
reentered at perigee over the eastern Pacific. The EPS second stage
ignited on the descending leg of the orbit at 0914UTC and burned for 17
minutes. During the burn the instantaneous orbital perigee increased so
that the payload missed the atmosphere easily with a closest approach of
225 km; altitude increased to engine cutoff at about 1100 km, at which
point Rosetta and the EPS stage were in a hyperbolic Earth escape orbit
with a perigee of 392 km. The EPS stage separated from Rosetta at 0932 UTC.
Rosetta left the Earth's gravitational sphere of influence early on
March 5, and is now in an 0.885 x 1.094 AU orbit around the Sun inclined
at 0.4 deg to the ecliptic and will reach perihelion around May 25.
Rosetta's target comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is in a 1.29 x 5.72 AU
x 7.1 deg orbit. To reach this very different orbit, Rosetta will make
an Earth flyby in Mar 2005, a Mars flyby in Feb 2007, two more Earth
flybys in Nov 2007 and Nov 2009, and will reach the comet in 2014.
On the way, Rosetta will make flybys of minor planets (2867) Steins
(on 2008 Sep 5) and (21) Lutetia (on 2010 Jul 10).
Rosetta was built by Astrium/Friedrichshafen, and carries the OSIRIS
camera, ultraviolet, visible, infrared and microwave spectrographs,
neutral and ion mass spectrometers and gas chromatograph, dust detectors
and analysers, comet plasma analysers, and the CONSERT radar sounder to
study the interior of the nucleus.
- The US-P class naval signals intelligence satellite Kosmos-2383 was
destroyed in orbit in late February. The debris is in low orbit and will
reenter quickly; such detonations are common for this class of Russian
military satellite. Kosmos-2383 was launched in Dec 2001 and has not
yet been replaced.
- On March 13, MBSAT was launched by Lockheed Martin Atlas 3A from Cape
Canaveral. The Loral-built MBSAT will relay digital audio and multimedia
to mobile users in Japan using a large deployable S-band mesh antenna.
Atlas Centaur AC-202 reached a 166 x 940 km orbit 12 min after launch,
and then restarted to enter a 183 x 35939 km x 24.8 deg transfer orbit.
MBSAT will use an R-4D liquid engine to raise its orbit to geostationary
over longitude 144 deg E. MBSAT is a joint venture between Mobile
Broadcasting Co. of Tokyo and SK Telecom of Seoul.
- A Krunichev Proton-M was launched from Baykonur on Mar 15 carrying a
Briz-M upper stage and the European Eutelsat W3A satellite. This is the
third launch of Proton-M, which has a more powerful first stage and
improved systems than the usual Proton-K. Eutelsat W3A is the first
Astrium Eurostar 3000S model, a larger version of the long-running
Eurostar series, and will provide communications for Eutelsat to Europe,
the Middle East, and Africa.
The Briz-M first burn put the spacecraft in a 185 x 185 km x 51.6 deg
orbit; the second burn finished at 0030 UTC on Mar 16 in a 250 x 5000 km
x 50.3 deg orbit, and the third burn ended at 0246 UTC in a 302 x 15585
km x 49.5 deg orbit. At this point the Briz torus tank was ejected. A
fourth burn at 0252 UTC raised the orbit to 380 x 35814 km x 49.1 deg,
and a fifth burn at 0805 UTC raised perigee and lowered inclination to
3575 x 35709 km x 12.3 deg. The Briz stage then separated, and Eutelsat
W3A began using its own propulsion to raise its orbit towards
geostationary. The Briz stage has not yet been cataloged.
- I'm still not sure whether Kosmos-2405 was an Oko early warning satellite
or a Molniya communications satellite.
- Russia has split the Rosaviakosmos agency into separate aviation and
space parts; the new Russian space agency is the Federal Space Agency
(Federal'noe kosmicheskoye agentstvo).
Table of Recent Launches
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Date UT Name Launch Vehicle Site Mission INTL.
DES.
Feb 5 2346 AMC-10 Atlas IIAS Canaveral SLC36A Comms 03A
Feb 14 1850 DSP 22 Titan 4B/IUS Canaveral SLC40 Early Warn 04A
Feb 18 0705 Kosmos-2405 Molniya-M Plesetsk Comms? 05A
Mar 2 0717 Rosetta Ariane 5G+ Kourou ELA3 Comet probe 06A
Mar 13 0540 MBSAT Atlas IIIA Canaveral SLC36B Comms 07A
Mar 15 2306 Eutelsat W3A Proton-M/Briz-M Baykonur Comms 08A
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| Jonathan McDowell | phone : (617) 495-7176 |
| Somerville MA 02143 | inter : jcm@host.planet4589.org |
| USA | jcm@cfa.harvard.edu |
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